This list indicates that planning a calendar is no
easy matter. In addition to determining which type
of year is to be followed, the motion of the earth on
its axis, the relative motion of the earth and the moon,
and the relative motion of the earth and the sun, three
incommensurate motions, must be taken into consideration, and have made the reckoning of time a difficult problem through the ages. Actually, the relative
motion of the moon and the earth no longer affect our
calendar directly. Imagine, if you can, the conflict
calendar makers must have faced when the lunar month
was abandoned! H. G. Wells wrote in his Outlines of
History: "The earliest recorded reckoning is by
moons." Eventually the moon became engraved in
the minds of people and took on religious significance.
Twelve lunations, 354 days, constituted the lunar year.
Attempts to reconcile the lunar calendar with the seasons led to various soli-lunar calendars of which the
Jewish calendar is the most notable.

The fact that most nations had their own calendar
makes it difficult for the archeologist to correlate the
events in different parts of the world. Add to this the
fact that few, if any, of the nations recorded a year
date or started their years on the same date, and the
problem becomes more difficult. Even in Egypt, with
its more modern calendar, the years were listed as the
year of the reign of a ruler: e.g., the fifth year of the
reign of the president, Eisenhower.

Probably the first solar calendar was invented by
the Egyptians as early as 4236 B.C. Julius Caesar,
who had seen this well organized calendar in operation
while in Egypt, determined to revise the Old Roman

*Paper presented at the 13th Annual Convention of the American
Scientific Affiliation at Iowa State College, August. 1958.

lunar calendar if he ever had the opportunity. This
calendar, as was common with all lunar calendars, was
in the hands of the priests. Eventually, corrupt and
fraudulent pontiffs began to "misuse (the calendar)
for political and economic purposes. They were able
to manipulate the months to their advantage in the
collection of rents, taxes, and interest ... (and) by the
time of Julius Caesar it was entirely at variance with
the seasons . . . The public (was) so disgruntled with
it, that it afforded . . . (him) a unique opportunity
to make drastic changes and necessary reforms" when
he came to power. (1:67) From history we gather
that an old 10 month lunar calendar, taken from wild
tribes of northern Europe, was adopted by King Romulus, with the years dating from the founding of Rome.
(753 B.C.) It was soon extended to 12 lunar months
by the addition of January and February, the year beginning in March. Later the months were reshuffled,
giving us the present arrangement. This was the
calendar Julius Caesar ordered an Egyptian astronomer to revise. The result of this revision was a solar
calendar named the Julian Calendar. Even in those
days the politicians knew on which side their bread
was buttered. They renamed the seventh month, (Quintilis), July. Later, Sextilis was named August
in order to butter up another emperor, since under him
a number of minor revisions were made.

The Julian Calendar went into effect in 46 B.C. It
was to begin at the time of the winter solstice, but
since a new moon came 7 days later, it was begun at
the time of the new moon, after a year of confusion
consisting of 445 days. Picture what would happen
today if the Democrats (or Republicans) would attempt something like this, and in an election year yet!
History may some day unearth records to show that
this is why Julius Caesar was assassinated the following year.

The Julian Calendar, a perpetual calendar, divided
each month into three sections, Kalends, Ides, and Nones, each of different length. (You will recall the
warning to "Beware the Ides of March" in Julius Caesar, which began on March 15.) In Leap Years, observed every fourth year, February 24 was repeated
to add the extra day. Under this calendar the year
had 365% days, which is 11 min., 14 sec. longer than
the solar year. A little arithmetic will show that this
amounts to one day in approximately 128 years.

In this form the calendar was used by the Romans
until 321 years after the birth of Christ. At this time
Constantine was the Roman Emperor, who had a soft
spot in his heart for the Christians. History tells us
that he was raised in Britain and was the chief priest
of the pagan Roman hierarchy, but that at his death he
became a Christian. In 321 A.D. Constantine introduced the seven-day week into the calendar. The
names of the days of the week are the Nordic names
of the then known seven heavenly bodies. The order
was established by the Assyrians who used it as their
basis of astrology. The astrological belief was that
each hour of the day was governed by a different
heavenly body in the order of their distance from the
Earth: Saturn, Jupiter (Thor), Mars (Tiw), Sun,
Venus (Frigg), Mercury (Woden), and Moon. The
"planet" which governed the first hour of the day was
called its "regent." Taking the hours in order, each
of the seven becomes a regent in the order of the days
of the week. Thus the perpetual characteristic, one of
the chief merits of the Julian Calendar, was lost, and
the wandering week became the chief difficulty of
the calendar, a serious defect that has continued to
this day.

By 325 A.D., the year of the Council of Nicea, the
vernal equinox had migrated back from March 25 to
March 21. The rule for determining the date of Easter
was stated at this time to avoid further confusion:
"Easter is always the first Sunday after the Full Moon
which happens upon or next after the twenty-first day
of March; and if the Full Moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter is the Sunday after." (Lutheran Hymnal, p. 158) From this all of the moveable festivals
are determined. Thus the pagan Julian Calendar
gradually became "Christianized." Many of the special feast days were set on the days of pagan festivals,
probably to "wean" the Christians away from them.

In A.D. 532, Dionysius Exiguns, a monk and Abbot
of Rome, established the present manner of counting
our years. The method of dating from the founding
of Rome was changed to dating from the birth of
Christ. Modern scholars contend that be made a four
year error and that Christ actually was born in 4 B.C.
Would that this were the only error our Catholic
brethren had made! Dionysius also set March 25 as
the date of Christ's conception and fixed this date as
the beginning of the Christian year.

This was the last major change in the calendar in
over 10 centuries. By that time it was obvious that
March 21 was no longer the first day of spring. This
was recognized by scholars for several centuries before
any action was taken. The Council of Trent in 1545
authorized the Pope to rectify the situation. After an
additional 37 years of deliberations and discussions,
Pope Gregory XIII issued a decree which made three
changes in the Julian Calendar, as advised by astrono
mers and mathematicians of that day: (1) The vernal
equinox was returned to March 21, where it had been
at the time of the Nicean Council. (2) The present
leap year rule then put into effect to prevent a recurrence of the situation, provides that every
year that is divisible by four except those century years which
are not divisible by 400 is a leap year. So, for example,
the year 1900 was a leap year under the Julian Calendar because it is divisible by 4, but not under the
Gregorian Calendar, since it is not divisible by 400.
This calendar is 26 seconds longer than the solar year,
which would amount to a day in 3323 years. (3) New
Year's Day was returned to January 1.

The new Gregorian Calendar was put into ef f ect in
1582, when Thursday, October 4, 1582, was followed
by Friday, October 15, 1582. Our colonies, controlled
by England, did not adopt the Gregorian Calendar at
this time. In 1534, at King Henry VIII's behest, the
English Parliament had passed the Act of Supremacy,
thus severing all connection with Rome and the English church. So, naturally, England and her colonies
did not follow the papal decree. It was not until 1752
that the change was made, when Wednesday, September 2, 1752 (Julian Calendar) was followed by
Thursday, September 14, 1752. The change, we are told,
caused riots and bloodshed in England by people who
demanded back the 11 days of their lives they thought
had been taken from them. Russia did not adopt the Gregorian Calendar until 1918, and the
Greek Orthodox Church has still not made the change.

Here, then, in brief, we have the history of our present calendar, a battle-scarred relic, originated by the
Old Romans. In it are reflected the superstitions and
myths of the ages. It bears effects given it by politicians ' astrologers, astronomers, and mathematicians.
It is encrusted with the whimsies of kings and dictators; it has been paganized, Christianized, modernized,
and renamed through the centuries. It now keeps
time with sun in a respectable manner, but that is about
all.

It has months that arenot months, with names of
four that are misnomers (September through December) and eight that have no meaning for present or
future mankind. Its week day names are a reversion
to pagan superstitions whose origin has been lost in
antiquity. Its halves are not halves and its quarters
not quarters, and each may begin on any day of the
week. It has 14 different kinds of years and 28 different types of months, most of which are caused by
that "extra day", and each year begins at a time of the
year that has no logical basis. The number of work
days and Saturdays varies in each month from year
to year, and yet our whole economy is based on business forecasts, which in turn are based on month to
month or quarter to quarter comparisons. In short,
"the Gregorian Calendar is unbalanced in structure,
unstable in form and irregular in arrangement."
(9:LV) It is an old model-T with new tires, converted to battery, and with new ising glass curtains,
but a model-T still.

Then why don't we discard it as we do our old cars,
out moded school books, and balloon dresses? A personal reference illustrates the attitude of so many people in this matter. Some years ago, after my mother
had raised her eight boys and two girls to manhood and
womanhood, we thought it was about time she got herself a refrigerator. She said she didn't need one. She
was better off than most of her neighbors, since she
had her cave under the house, and that was luxury
enough. And besides, the exercise was good for her.
But when her oldest insisted he would buy her one if
she didn't do it herself, she let him know that be could
buy her one if he wanted to, but she assured him she
would not use it. And use it she didn't . . . for a
long time. It was a gradual process, but today her refrigerator is one of her prize possessions, as jam-packed as yours. Calendarwise we need an older brother
who will buy us a new one, since, apparently, we prefer the cave we grew up with, not realizing its limitations.

Miss Elisabeth Achelis, in "Of Time And The Calendar", chapter IX, gives an excellent resume of the
history of proposed revisions. It finally became an
important item on the League of Nations agenda, and
when it appeared to be ready for adoption, World War
II broke out and the League of Nations folded. Many
years of study by various experts in the field sifted
187 proposed plans. The last two calendars to stay in the running were the 13-month plan and The World
Calendar, both containing the perpetual feature. The
World Calendar was finally settled upon because of the few differences it has with the present calendar.
One disadvantage of the 13-month calendar in this enlightened age is the fact that every month would have
a Friday the 13th.

days each-a rhythmic pattern
of 31, 30, 30
days.
4. Quarters always begin on a Sunday and end on a Saturday.
5. The quarters are equal in length.
6. Each quarter contains three months,
13
weeks or 91 days.
7.
Month-dates always fall on the same weekdays.
8. Days and dates always agree from year to year.
9. Holidays are fixed.
10. Each year begins on Sunday, January 1, and the working
year on Monday, January 2.
11. Each year is comparable.
12. The World Calendar is balanced in structure, perpetual in
forin and harmonious in arrangement. (9:V)

It is also interesting to note that each month has 26
weekdays. The calendars of 2000 years ago were national in scope and religious in character. Since this
is actually the only type of calendar people are familiar
with, it is difficult to imagine any other kind. However, in today's shrinking world a common calendar
molded to fit today's needs is imperative. It should
be clear that such a calendar must be a civil and secular calendar, free from religious bias of any kind. It
must be universal and scientific in character, making
it possible to be used by all nations, peoples and races
It must not deal with religious belief, dogma, theology
tradition, myth, or orthodoxy. The World Calendar
is such a calendar.

Once it is adopted, the various religions can take up
the questions of revising their respective religious observances within the scope of this orderly, balanced,
and harmonious civil system. It will also be necessary
for each nation to set its own national holidays and
civic observances.

It is hoped that after the change is made that the
Christian churches will establish a fixed Easter. While
it should be done for its own sake, it will be a great
aid to business and to any schedule-making groups,
such as schools and colleges.

Many articles and pamphlets have been written to
show the benefits, monetary and otherwise, which
would accrue once a perpetual calendar is adopted.
Some of these are listed in the bibliography. It would
take too long to discuss them adequately here. A reliable authority estimates that a saving of four to five
billion dollars annually would be effected by the adoption of the World Calendar. Much of this waste is
due to absenteeism caused by roving holidays. However it is not possible to measure many of the inconveniences in dollars and cents. We may consider these
as the human values of a stabilized calendar, even including such "little" things as being able to know on
what day of the week various days of the month will
fall. For many of us in schools and colleges the additional work we need to do because of our present
calendar simply means extra hours in our busy schedtiles. The ever-changing school calendar is the big
offender. Last year's plans and schedule cannot be
followed because no week, month, or year is the same
under the irregular calendar. Pity the poor organist
and pastor when Christmas falls on a midweek day.
For them and their families there is no Christmas "vacation."

It should make an interesting study to determine
the man-hours wasted per year in any particular business or profession because of our inefficient calendar
At Concordia, where I teach, it starts with the picking
of an opening and closing day in such a way that the
right number of teaching days is included. Vacations
sports events, and choir tours must be scheduled carefully each year; the many other extracurricular activities of our campus high school and college, and the
dozens of administrative, academic, and social groups
must have proper (and nonconflicting!) dates and
facilities. Additional headaches come when the many
emergency meetings pop up. Small wonder that church
and civic groups accuse us of being self-centered and
uncooperative!

Dates do make a difference. With a regular calendar like the World Calendar much of the work and
most of the conflicts could be eliminated. Since last
year's plans and schedules could now be used every
year, we could concentrate on eliminating the trouble
spots. And now that there are more nonconflicting
events, attendance will increase, and all of us will have
more time to attend them. But wouldn't the World
Calendar be monotonous? Of course it will. Monotonous like having lunch at 12 every day and eight
hours of sleep every night. That we could stand, too.

It is hoped that when the United States puts the
calendar into operation it will set all or most of our
national holidays on Fridays or Mondays, making
three-day weekends possible as something that can be
planned for each year. Actually, it would not be
necessary to wait for the World Calendar to do this.
We could observe a Presidents' Day on the third Monday in February, Memorial Day on the last Monday
in May, Independence Day on the first Friday in July,
Labor Day on the first Monday in September, and
Veterans' Day on the second Friday in November,
giving us five national holidays, well spread out
through the year. After the Roosevelt fiasco there
seems to be a reluctance to meddle with Thanksgiving,
but it surely could be celebrated on Friday as well as
on Thursday. This is the holiday that causes the most
headaches for school administrators.

Miss Achelis, (13:5) states that the "obstacles to
calendar reform are two fold-first traditionally religious sectarianism
I
and second, apathy and indifference." In considering the second point we should recall the words of Samuel Johnson: "Nothing will be
attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome." It does appear, however, that an informed
group is invariably in favor of the adoption of the
World Calendar. A score of nations has gone on re
cord as being in favor of its adoption. The December,
1954 issue of the journal of Calendar Reform lists over 250 groups of various kinds that have endorsed the
World Calendar. A dozen religious organizations are
listed, including the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church (U.S.A.), the College of
Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church South (U.
S. A.), the Reformed Church of America, The American Lutheran Church, the Council of Bishops of
the Methodist Church (U.S.A.), and my own church,
The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.

Probably the most controversial feature of the
World Calendar is the use of the Worldsday at the
end of each year and at the end of June in Leap Years.
For the bulk of Christendom there is no problem. Col.
2:16, 17, for example, where we read: "Let no man
therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect
of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath
days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the
body is of Christ", makes it clear to them that the Old
Testament rules listed here have been set aside. Many
of Jesus' condemnations of the Scribes and Pharisees
centered around the misinterpretations of the Old
Testament, including their interpretations and man
made rules in regard to the Sabbath. On one such
occasion (Mark 2, 27) He concludes that "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath."
To quote Miss Achelis again, "Worldsday is not new.
Actually it is a revival of the 50th day in the ancient
calendar used by the early Israelites, described in Leviticus 23: 15, 16 of the Old Testament. In that
calendar, known as the Pentecontad, a series of 49 days
of seven weeks and seven sabbaths was enriched and
fortified by adding a 50th day, dedicated to the Lord
and observed as a 'high holiday.' Other series of 49
days plus the 50th day followed. It is most interesting
to note that the ancient Jews were the first people to
honor not only an extra day in their calendar but to
give it religious connotation.

It is not known with any accuracy when the Jewish
leaders adopted the newer concept of an uninterrupted
succession of weeks. With the adoption of this new
feature the holy 50th day bad to be abandoned because
the 49th day on one Pentecontad and the 7th day of
the next, both being sabbaths, the 50th day would bring
an 'eighth day' into the week. It was actually a day
outside the week, coming between two separate weeks,
which erroneously was interpreted as bringing about
an 8-day week. Worldsday in the World Calendar
also comes between two separate weeks and often has
been wrongly interpreted as making an '8-day week.'

. . . There are people today who relate the 150-day
duration of the flood in Genesis to three Pentecontad
periods and the origin of the fifty-year anniversary to
the same source."

The best time to put the World Calendar into op
eration is when both the old and new calendars coincide at the start of the year. The next time this
happens is in 1961, and then again in 1967. At present.,
1967 is the target year NVorld Calendar enthusiasts are
aiming at. As individuals we have two responsibilities in this matter: ( I ) to become informed, and (2)
to express our views to our representatives in Washington.

We are gradually breaking down the harriers of nationalism, and are entering an era in which all people,
regardless of race or religion are cooperating in the search
for peace. In such a world, civilization ur,1 -
ly needs a good uniform calendar for all nations. We
must have vision in this endeavor, for "where there is
no vision the people perish." It is high time for all
of us to lend a hand so that we may soon K. 0. our calendar chaos.

Bibliography And Selected References
1. Panth, Bhola D. Consider the Calendar. Bureau of Publications, Teachers College - Columbia University, New
York, 1944,
2, Achelis, Elisabeth. Of Time and The Calendar. He
tage House, New York, 1955.
3. Zimmerman, B. A treatise on the Sabbatical Cycle the Jubilee.
Strangeways and Walden, London, 1866.4. The Journal of Calendar Reform. The World Cal
Association, International Building, 630 Fifth Ave.
New York 20, New York.
(This publication was discontinued with the January
1956 issue. This office was then closed. Miss Elizabeth
Achelis is still active and can be reached at P. 0. Box 224
Lenox Hill Station, New York, 21, but the main work
being done by the International World Calendar Asciation, P. 0. Box 20, Besserer Street, Ottawa, Canada.
Pamphlets published by the World Calendar Association:
5. l,irestone, John M. The Present Calendar and its Effect on American Business.
Monograph No. 4, 1950.
6. Joyce, James Avery. Some Economic and Social Advantages of the World Calendar.
Monograph No. 1, 1954.
7. Sweeny, R. L., and Schlesinger, F. W. The Evolution of the Calendar.
8. Improve the Calendar: What's Wrong With It; How to Fix It.
9. The World Calendar.
10. The World Calendar and Religion.
11.
Rogoff, Sulamith. Israel's Calendar Confusions.
12.
Achelis, Elisabeth. Workable World Unity.
13. Achelis, Elisabeth. Calendar Change - A Challenge.
Pamphlets published by Miss Achelis at her new address:14. 0n the Square With Time.
15. An Ancient 30th Day Revived.